A Hubert Harrison Reader by Hubert Harrison

Author:Hubert Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

And what is true of France is equally true of the other Great Powers. Now it happens that, with the sole exception of Japan, the Great Powers are white and their imperial dominion is a dominion over colored people: “the lesser breeds without the law,” as [Rudyard] Kipling calls them. It is the land, labor and resources of these backward and weaker peoples which constitute the stakes of diplomacy and war today. A glance at the map of the world will show that the danger points are those places where white nations have staked out competing claims to the ownership, control and “development” of the lands of colored peoples—mainly in Africa and Asia. Britain, Belgium and France having absorbed most of Africa, Asia remains as the prolific center of future troubles. And just as the “inferior” blacks of four Southern States dominate the domestic policies of those States, so do the “inferior” Asiatic groups dominate the international policies of white Europe and America.

In America our white political experts have managed to dodge the real inner reason for England’s Asiatic alliance with Japan. That reason is—India, which is the key-stone of the British imperial system. The mere existence of a colored great power in Asia is a tremendous stimulant to Asiatic self-assertion. Add to this the fact that this colored power has defeated successively two white powers and driven them from Asia’s eastern front, and it will be seen what trouble it could stir up in India with its 150,000,000 people if it should, in a spirit of unfriendliness assume the role of liberator or leader.

Then there is China. In a recent article in the Times’ Current History Magazine Mr. Stephen Bosnal tells us that “China is a market which … we cannot afford to lose,” and goes on to paint a beautiful ethical picture of the United States as the champion of China against Japanese aggression. But here again the white publicist deliberately covers up and hides away the racial implication of his thesis. “Our pledge to support China against outside aggression,” he says, “goes back to the treaty of 1858.” Yet since that time large slices of China have been taken by England, Germany, France and Russia, and the fact remains that against these aggressions the United States made no protest, did not assume the role of ethical champion.

In 1894, when the rising empire of Japan defeated the empire of China, the Japanese attempted to do what England did after she had defeated Germany—to take some of the territory of the conquered. At that time Russia presented a note to the powers in which it was maintained that any taking of territory of Japan would be opposed by the armed forces of Russia, England, Germany and France. When the joint note was presented to Japan her hand was stayed, for she could not fight these four powers. But they proceeded to take what they had denied Japan. England took Wei Hai Wei, Germany took Shantung, Russia took Port Arthur, and France also took her slice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.